Identification of a novel group of evolutionarily conserved members within the rapidly diverging murine Cea family

Roland Zebhauser, Robert Kammerer, Andreas Eisenried, Andrew McLellan, Tom Moore, Wolfgang Zimmermann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

78 Scopus citations

Abstract

The carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) family comprises a still actively evolving populous group of proteins that are involved in controlling tissue homeostasis, immune responses, and host/pathogen interactions. The genes identified to date in rodents and primates exhibit low sequence similarity and an extremely variable domain composition. Among the 22 murine Cea-related genes, only for Ceacam1 has an ortholog been assigned. To identify all CEA-related genes in mouse, rat, and human we undertook genome-wide analyses. Eight of 9 new expressible genes (Ceacam12-Ceacam20) could be located within the ∼6.5-Mb murine Cea locus. Five of the genes were rodent-specific (Ceacam12-Ceacam15 and Ceacam17). Surprisingly, for the remaining 4 (Ceacam16 and Ceacam18-Ceacam20) orthologs could be detected in all three genomes at syntenic locations. Gene-specific reverse transcription/PCR analyses of total RNA from 31 murine adult, placental, and embryonic tissues as well as tumors revealed very distinct expression patterns, suggesting diversified functions within the CEA family.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)566-580
Number of pages15
JournalGenomics
Volume86
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2005
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • CEA family
  • Carcinoembryonic antigen
  • Cea gene locus
  • Evolution
  • Expression
  • ITAM
  • Pregnancy-specific glycoprotein

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